Ogwumike leads Stanford to easy win over Oregon State

What was unusual was how Stanford's All-America forward did it Sunday in the Cardinal's 89-67 victory over Oregon State.

Ogwumike scored 31 points and grabbed 13 rebounds for the fourth-ranked Cardinal (13-1, 2-0 Pac-12), which has won 12 straight. But with Ruth Hamblin, Oregon State's 6-foot-6 sophomore center, patrolling the paint, the 6-4 Ogwumike could not play with her back to the basket as she typically does.

"I think this is the first time Chiney's scored 31 points facing up in all her time here," Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer said. "We know she can do it, because she does it every day in practice. But today she showed that she can score on the block. It was a great opportunity for her to show she's got more."

It was the senior's second straight 30-point, 10-rebound performance -- she had 33 and 14, respectively, in Friday's win over Oregon -- and third in her past four.

Oregon State coach Scott Rueck said opposing teams have to pick their poison when figuring out how to defend Ogwumike, who did not attend the postgame news conference.

"What do you do with her?" Rueck asked. "I thought Ruth was a pretty good matchup down low. If you go small against her, she beats us there and hurts us inside."

Ogwumike scored 10 of Stanford's points during its game-opening 19-2 run and 17 before the midway point of the first half. Oregon State (8-6, 0-2), by contrast, scored nine points in the same span.

The Cardinal led 34-9 before the Beavers went on a 14-6 run to pull within 17. After leading 50-30 at the intermission, Stanford let the Beavers get within 13 when freshman guard Sydney Wiese hit a 3-pointer with 6:05 remaining but otherwise kept OSU at a seemingly comfortable distance throughout the contest.

"We delivered the knockout punch right off the bat and were able to keep them down the rest of the game," VanDerveer said.

When Ogwumike scored her 14th and 15th points with 12:13 remaining before intermission, she moved past Jayne Appel into fourth place on Stanford's all-time career scoring list. Ogwumike, who became the Pac-12's career rebounding leader on Friday, now needs just 486 points to become the conference's all-time scoring leader as well. Former Cardinal star Candace Wiggins holds the mark of 2,629.

On top of everything else, Ogwumike had six assists and three steals, both game highs.